Valerie Andrews, 39, was allegedly evading police and driving while intoxicated when she collided with another family's minivan, killing all four inside.

By Michelle Mondo :
October 20, 2010

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A Bexar County grand jury on Wednesday returned four murder indictments against Valerie Andrews, 39, accused in August of driving drunk, fleeing police and causing a collision that killed four people.

Andrews was indicted under the "felony murder rule" because at the time of the Aug. 8 crash on the city's South Side she was evading police, a felony, according to a news release from the District Attorney's Office.

The rule allows a murder charge to be applied to someone who causes the death of another while committing or trying to commit a felony, the news release said.

In the past two years at least three motorists in fatal crashes have been convicted of murder under the rule, with two of those involving a police chase, according to Express-News records.

However, none of those three were alcohol-related, and the mix of alleged intoxication and evading arrest make the case "very unusual," said First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg.

Herberg said prosecutors decided to present to the grand jury the additional murder case that was forwarded to the office by San Antonio detectives.

"You've got four people that were killed," Herberg said. "This is an egregious crime."

The grand jury returned a total of four indictments that each included single counts of murder, intoxication manslaughter and manslaughter based on recklessness, the news release said.

Andrews has been jailed since the crash in lieu of $230,000 bail after being charged with one count of evading arrest and four counts of intoxication manslaughter, according to county records.

Herberg said because Andrews was already jailed prosecutors had 90 days to present the case to the grand jury. A murder charge can carry a life sentence while the maximum for intoxication manslaughter is 20 years, Herberg said.

He stressed, however, that intoxication was not an element of the felony murder cases - evading police was.

Calls to the attorney listed for Andrews were not returned.

Andrews is accused of running a red light at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Military Drive; then evading arrest after an officer tried to stop her for that offense, records show. She fled in her PT Cruiser west on Lorita Street and reportedly ignored a stop sign at the intersection of South Flores Street, slamming into the Perez family's Dodge Caravan.

Witnesses said they saw Andrews' vehicle flip into the air after impact and crash upside down into a TV repair shop. She was treated at the hospital and released into jail custody.

The Caravan was wrapped around a utility pole.

The day after the crash, José Perez, the patriarch of the family who lost his wife, two daughters and one grandson, cried alongside his son, both of whom said they didn't know how to move forward.

"She made a real bad decision," Perez said then. "If God can forgive her, I can forgive her, too. But it can't bring the family back."

Records show Andrews was charged in 2003 with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 36 days in jail and a $700 fine.

Herberg said that throughout the state some prosecutors have tried intoxication manslaughter as murder cases if the driver was also charged with driving while intoxicated-third offense, making that the underlying felony to support the charge.

"The message it sends, I hope, is this is very basic. If you are over 21 we're not asking you not to drink; we're just asking you not to get behind a wheel and make yourself a weapon in that vehicle," Montgomery said.